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Title: Influence of urban extent discrepancy on the estimation of surface urban heat island intensity: A global-scale assessment in 892 cities

Journal Article · · Journal of Cleaner Production
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [3];  [3];  [8]
  1. Macau University of Science and Technology (China); Tongji University, Shanghai (China)
  2. Macau University of Science and Technology (China)
  3. Tongji University, Shanghai (China)
  4. Nanjing Univ. of Information Science and Technology (China)
  5. Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou (China)
  6. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  7. Wuhan Univ. (China)
  8. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)

The estimation of surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) is crucial for studying the urban thermal environment, which is influenced not only by the commonly known definition of rural reference but also by the delineation of urban extent. Existing studies relies on various urban extent products defined in different ways, and the influence of urban extent discrepancy (UED) on SUHII estimates still remains unclear. In this study, we collected five open-source global urban extent products (GUEPs) for the year 2015 and corresponding daily land surface temperature (LST) observations (MYD11A1). Based on these products, we quantified the UED-induced uncertainty in SUHII estimates by comparing absolute difference (ΔSUHIIAD) and relative difference (ΔSUHIIRD) in SUHII among GUEPs across 892 global cities. Additionally, we introduced an ISF-constrained (ISF–C) method to reduce SUHII differences among GUEPs by constraining the impervious surface fraction (ISF) within urban and rural extents. The results show that urban extents delineated by different GUEPs are not consistent, leading to their difference in ISF as well as LST, which in turn causes uncertainties in the estimated SUHII. On average for global cities, the annual daytime and nighttime ΔSUHIIAD are 0.46 ± 0.02 °C (mean ± 95% confidence interval) and 0.24 ± 0.01 °C, with corresponding ΔSUHIIRD of 42.0 ± 2.7% and 35.2 ± 2.3%, respectively. The UED-induced uncertainty in SUHII estimates varies among climate zones, and the annual daytime ΔSUHIIRD averaged for cities located in the arid zone reaches up to 60.8 ± 6.6%, which is nearly twice as high as that in other climate zones. More importantly, both ΔSUHIIAD and ΔSUHIIRD show lower values when using the ISF-C method, implying the effectiveness of this method. This study highlights the non-negligible impact of UED on the estimation of SUHII, which requires more attention due to the inconsistency of urban extents among current products.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth & Environmental Systems Sciences (EESS)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2246610
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--191855
Journal Information:
Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal Name: Journal of Cleaner Production Vol. 426; ISSN 0959-6526
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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